The 2018 iPad Pro in 2022. Is it still useful?
Should you invest your money in this machine that’s made in 2018 or do you need to go for the latest version?
In this article, I want to talk about the 2018 iPad Pro. So it’s been a while since I haven’t reviewed the iPad, and since I had this one lying around, I thought to write an article about it. Just to inform you guys if this 2018 iPad Pro is still useful in 2022.
What to look for when buying the 2018 iPad Pro
So there are a couple of things to look for when buying an iPad. First, are you buying an iPad just to browse onto it, like watching videos and making notes for studying, Or for your work? Or are you even a more advanced user like a programmer or a gamer that’s like to use the iPad for a couple of hours straight? To be honest, for both audiences, there is something that this iPad has to offer.
First, let’s look at this iPad as a user that’s just watching videos and taking notes on it. When it comes to taking notes, my favorite program is Bear, and it looks phenomenal on this iPad. It has a beautiful layout, and it just seems to be made for the iPad, and yeah with an external keyboard that you definitely need if you take lots of notes on a daily basis, this iPad will be enough. It has a long battery lasting so if you’re a moderate use, and you’re not having your display brightness all the way up, you can use it for like six to seven hours.
You can also watch videos on it like Netflix or YouTube or whatever videos you like to watch. And the beauty of this iPad is that you can have a side-by-side screen that lets you take notes and watch a tutorial at the same time.
So let’s say you’re watching a Udemy tutorial, and you want to take notes of that video that you’re watching, you can simply do that. Just open a note-taking app, for example, the apple notes, and swipe from the bottom to the top. Now you have apps showing up on the dock. Press on whatever app you want and just drag and drop it on the site. Now you can just watch the video while taking notes.
This is so convenient, I just can’t understand why Apple didn’t come up with this future earlier on. This is such a game-breaking deal when it comes to multitasking on the iPad.
iPadOS on the 2018 iPad Pro
What about iPadOS? Well, the 2018 iPad Pro still handles up to iOS 15. I haven’t updated my iPad Pro yet. Currently, it runs iOS 14.8. So I definitely need to update that software, but yeah you can still run the latest software on it and I believe that this will go on for a couple of generations to come.
So like I said before, this iPad has a beautiful display with a phenomenal refresh rate. With its 120-hertz refresh rate, it’s very snappy.
Can you attach an external hard drive to it?
It even comes with a USB-C, and now you might be asking yourself well if it comes with USB-C can I attach an external hard drive to it?
Well, let’s find out. If I take this SanDisk external hard drive and I try to attach it to this iPad… nothing happens. Meaning that it is not possible to attach an external hard drive, which is a downside if you would ask me. Granted, if you’re just taking notes on this iPad, the internal hard drive is more than enough. But if you have lots of pictures and videos, it might be quite useful to have the option to attach an external hard drive to it. Unfortunately, that’s not possible, folks.
So keep in mind that you just can’t attach an external hard drive to it even though it comes with USB-C.
So, you might be asking yourself, what is that USB-C even good for? Well, you can charge it very fast. With a 12W charging brick that comes along with this iPad Pro, it will take you about 3 hours to charge it to the max. Also, you can connect it to an external display. So for example, if you have a 4K monitor, and you want to attach this iPad to that monitor, that’s perfectly fine.
What’s more in the box?
Furthermore, it comes with an Apple Pencil. Well, it doesn’t come with an Apple Pencil, you need to purchase it separately. This Apple Pencil will cost you around 129 dollars. That’s quite expensive, but if you have that Apple Pencil, it will serve you for many years to come. Because up until now, iPad didn’t shift from the Apple Pencil. Meaning that you can still use the second-generation Apple Pencil on the latest generation iPad.
What about a headphone jack?
If you want to attach a headphone, that’s possible, but it doesn’t come with a headphone jack port. To solve this problem, you can get yourself a USB-C to a headphone jack adapter. This way, you can just attach a headphone with a headphone jack to it.
Another option is to connect Bluetooth headphones to it. Think of AirPods or Beats By Dre. It would be nice if Apple just attached a headphone jack to this iPad, but that’s not the case here, and I’m afraid that we have to deal with that.
Unlocking this iPad
Unlocking the iPad happens with Face ID, which is great. If you just swipe to the top, it will recognize your face with an in-depth camera sensor. What if you have your finger accidentally on the camera? Well, it will tell that by showing you an arrow that you need to remove your finger from that camera.
So you don’t have to unlock it with a Numeric or an Alphanumeric code. That’s quite handy.
What about programmers?
I wouldn’t recommend this iPad, or any iPad for that matter. If you are a programmer, you can’t write code on this thing. I mean yeah, you can download an app that teaches you how to code on an iPad, but if you want to download a text editor like Atom or VS Code, then you need to look into a Laptop. There is no iPadOS version for whatever text editor you’re looking for.
I might advise you rather to just buy a MacBook Air that will serve you well. With the latest MacBook Air M1 that you can get for for a thousand bucks which is slightly more expensive than this iPad Pro, you get way more bang for your buck as a developer.
The 2018 iPad Pro for Gamers
Like I said it before, has a very high refresh rate. Up to 120 hertz to be more precise. That means that gaming on it looks just phenomenal. I’ve downloaded Asphalt on it and the graphics are just unbelievable. Its A12X Bionic chip is lightning fast and very suitable for playing heavy games on the iPad.
Designers
Before, I advised you to get yourself a laptop if you are a programmer. But what if you are a designer? Then definitely go for an iPad instead. The iPad is just made for designers. But you need an Apple Pencil. With it, you can draw beautiful things if you are a beginner, there are tons of videos on YouTube that show you um how to start drawing.
One more thing
Before you go, I have one thing that might interest you. I write a lot on the internet, but when it comes to those golden nuggets, I like to share them with my friends first. So make sure to join the club by subscribing here to my email list!
